Mahatma ignored at satyagraha’s birthplace
Patna, October 8
One of Mahatma Gandhi's first trysts with rural India was Champaran. It was here that the urban freedom fighter came face to face with the destitute peasants and what Mahatma would later on call the real India.

Private resources must in road projects: union minister
New Delhi, October 8
Union Minister of Shipping, Road Transport and Highways T.R. Baalu yesterday underlined the need for public-private partnership (PPP) for putting in place the required infrastructure to meet the country’s target of $150 million exports by 2008-09 and double its share in world exports from 0.8 to 1.5 per cent.

Scintillating show marks Air Force Day
Hindon, October 8
Shifting for the first time the venue of its annual Air Force Day parade from the Palam air base in Delhi to the outskirts of the Capital at Hindon in
Ghaziabad (UP), the Indian Air Force (IAF) today presented one of the grandest ever displays of its frontline fighter jets, helicopters and mid-air re-fuellers in a traditional fly-past.

Raj Babbar questions fallout of land acquisitions
Lucknow, October 8
In a country where a majority of farmers subsist on agriculture, the issue of large scale acquisition of cultivable land to benefit the industrialists demands an extensive social debate, asserted the Jan Morcha today.

Bihar to revive cane industry
Patna, October 8
In a bid to give a boost to the production of sugar and allied products in Bihar, the Nitish government has cleared proposals for the setting up of 14 new multi-purpose sugar mill complexes involving an estimated investment of Rs 3,624 crore.

Maoists behead 3 villagers
Chatra, October 8
The banned CPI (Maoist) ultras beheaded three villagers accusing them of being police informers in this district of Jharkhand today.

Yechury to lead CPM team to China
New Delhi, October 8
Ahead of Chinese President Hu Jin Tao’s visit to India this month, CPM leader Sitaram Yechury will be leading a high level delegation of his party to China.

New Delhi, October 8
India and the European Union are set to sign the Galileo communication project agreement at the Seventh India-EU Summit in Helsinki (Finland) on October 13.

The signing of the agreement will be one of the important highlights of the Summit. At the sixth India-EU Summit here last year, the two sides had agreed that India should join Galileo, a project of immense strategic importance that will revolutionise communication of all types in the country by 2008-09 when it is to become operational.

Under the project, the EU will launch more than 30 satellites into space. The project will break the American monopoly in the field of satellite communication.

Foreign Secretary Shankar Menon, in response to a question from this correspondent, had yesterday said the project was “almost ready for signatures” and this should be done during the Helsinki Summit.

The Prime Minister leaves tomorrow for a six-day tour of the UK and Finland.

At the Summit, the EU will be represented under the Finnish Presidency by the Prime Minister of Finland, Mr Vanhanen, the High Representative for Common Foreign Security Policy, Dr Xavier Solana, and the President of the European Commission, Mr Jose Manuel Barosso, the European Commissioner of External Relations, Mr Benito Ferreiro-Waldner, and the European Commission of the Trade, Mr Peter Mandelson.

India is the sixth country with which the EU has such a strategic partnership — the others being the USA, Canada, Russia, China and Japan.

The EU is home to a very large Indian diaspora. It is also India’s single largest trading partner — one-fifth of India’s total external trade is with the EU.

Bilateral trade has grown steadily between 2001 and 2005 at over 10 per cent on average each year to reach euro 40 billion in 2005.

India is now the 11th largest exporter to the EU.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will start his tour with a bilateral visit to London to attend the India-UK annual summit with his British counterpart Tony Blair.

The focus of discussions during the visit will be on the further expansion of economic linkages, on R&D corroboration and academic exchanges and on cooperation in counter-terrorism and clean energy.

This will be the fifth meeting between Dr Manmohan Singh and Mr Blair since 2004.

Dr Singh and Mr Blair will address the India-UK Investment Summit on October 10, which is being organised by the Indo-British Business Partnership Network.

Around 100 CEOs are expected to attend the event. The UK is home to around 1.2 million Indians and over 60,000 Indian students.

It is India’s fourth largest global trading partner and the largest in the EU with an annual two-way trade of £ 5.6 billion and services of £ 1.8 billion.

The UK is also the largest cumulative investor in India and the fifth largest in India since 1991.

In recent years, Indian investments in the UK have grown rapidly and India has emerged as the third largest investor in the UK as well in terms of the number of projects, with an estimated investment of over $ 1 billion.

Another significant indicator of the increasing Indian profile is that nearly 500 Indian companies have offices in the Greater London area.

On October 11, the Prime Minister will travel to Cambridge University where an honorary degree will be conferred on him.

Patna, October 8
One of Mahatma Gandhi's first trysts with rural India was Champaran. It was here that the urban freedom fighter came face to face with the destitute peasants and what Mahatma would later on call the real India.

Historically in 1919 Bihar, Champaran was the first district where Mahatma had led the Satyagraha movement in India against the British raj after his return from South Africa.

But the Hazarimal Dharmasala in Champaran, which was the birthplace of the first Satyagraha revolution in India, now bore testimony to how really one had remembered the non-violent form of struggle of the Mahatma.

But in contrast to the rich tribute paid to Satyagraha's centenary, a sprawling market complex now reportedly stands at Hazarimal Dharamsala in Champaran.

Whatever little of the historical building that remained intact, was locked, apparently awaiting an uncertain future.

The chairman of Gandhi Museum, Mr Razi Ahmed said even though the Bihar Government in the past had declared Hazarimal Dharamsala as a protected monument, its original owner did not hesitate to destroy it.

The successive Congress and non-Congress governments in the state also seemed to have turned a blind eye to the building's poor state.

It was learnt that for several years, a case against the owner's decision to sell the building was pending in the Patna High Court.

New Delhi, October 8
Union Minister of Shipping, Road Transport and Highways T.R. Baalu yesterday underlined the need for public-private partnership (PPP) for putting in place the required infrastructure to meet the country’s target of $150 million exports by 2008-09 and double its share in world exports from 0.8 to 1.5 per cent.

Speaking at a conference of “Building Infrastructure: Challenge and Opportunities” organised by the Planning Commission, he said PPP was a paradigm shift in the government’s approach to the implementation of the National Highways Development Programmes (NHDP).

Mr Baalu asserted that the country would have to put in place its infrastructure expeditiously to provide comfort to domestic and foreign investors. “Private resources are a must as infrastructure projects have a long gestation period and may not be financially viable on their own and their requirement may fall short of budgetary allocations,” he added.

The government has comprehensive guidelines for private sector participation in highways and also announced several incentives and tax exemptions and duty-free import of road building equipment and machinery.

Model concession agreements have also been finalised for major road projects. To address concern of private sector regarding high upfront capital investment and high risk of revenue
collection, the government has decided to offer some projects on annuity basis in addition to giving several incentives.

The Minister said the NHAI Board had been vested with sufficient powers to sanction projects on a fast-track basis and the organisation was also being strengthened to further enable it to take up larger programmes at accelerated pace.

Concerns being voiced by investors regarding delays on account of land acquisition, utility shifting, environment approvals, etc have been addressed by setting up of a committee of secretaries under the chairmanship of the Cabinet Secretary.

Hindon, October 8
Shifting for the first time the venue of its annual Air Force Day parade from the Palam air base in Delhi to the outskirts of the Capital at Hindon in
Ghaziabad (UP), the Indian Air Force (IAF) today presented one of the grandest ever displays of its frontline fighter jets, helicopters and mid-air re-fuellers in a traditional fly-past.

The flypast and parade, held at Palam since years, were shifted to Hindon to give the IAF more space to display its might and also to avoid disruption of commercial national and international air traffic to and from the Capital. At present, Hindon is primarily a helicopter base. Fighters were shifted out of here due to excessive bird activity in the area.

The highlight of the day was Chief of Air Staff S.P. Tyagi’s daring paradrop at the IAF celebrations to take the salute at the Hindon air base as 80 aircrafts displayed their awesome air power. The air chief also took this opportunity to dispel reports about the dwindling strength of IAF’s combat squadrons, saying that the force was on the threshold of a quantum leap with the upcoming purchase of advanced muti-role fighters, mid-air refuellers and airborne early warning and control systems.

But it was Suryakiran and the Sarang helicopter team that had the massive turnout at the Hindon airbase on the edge of their seats with their scintillating formation maneuvers. The Yelahanka-based Sarang team, with its unique peacock-type colour scheme, captivated the audience with a mid-air salute from the team leader, Wing Commander Shashank Mishra, before embarking on a series of stunts.

The Suryakiran team put on its by now familiar signature performance, enthralling spectators with different formations like VIC, Viggen and Tango. The highlight of the Suryakiran show was when the jets tore through the sky to form sunrays and a symbolic heart, complete with an arrow, just for women.

The multi-purpose, sturdy and completely reliable Mi-17 helicopters swooped down from the clouds in a VIC formation while the majestic Sukhois flew low over crowds, climbing to a steep “vertical Charlie” into the clouds. Another highlight was the stunning display of combat maneuver that included the simulation of the defence airbase from attacking enemy aircraft.

Addressing the parade, Air Chief Marshal Tyagi said the IAF had transformed from a small and tactical force into a strategic power to reckon with. He said the IAF was on the threshold of a quantum leap with the upcoming purchase of advanced muti-role fighters, mid-air refuellers and airborne early warning and control systems.

The IAF, he said, was capable of protecting India’s interest outside the country. Apart from being the guardian of Indian airspace, the force also ensures the vital interests of a resurgent India, which extended well beyond its shores, he added.

On this occasion Chief of Air Staff Tyagi gave away gallantry and meritorious service awards to IAF personnel. The air chief honoured 37 personnel with the Vayu Sena Medal, including 20 for gallantry. As many as 31 Vishist Seva Medals and one Jeevan Raksha Padak were awarded to mark the contribution in securing borders and in relief operations in the wake of disasters and natural
calamities.

New Delhi, October 8
It was a literary evening with a difference where noted Hindi litterateurs spoke their hearts out on children’s literature.
At the 12th Ratan Sharma Smriti Balsahitya award-giving function at Triveni Kala Sangam yesterday, noted writer Maridula Garg gave a pleasant jolt to all those present when she said that if works like ‘Chandrakanta’, ‘Chandrakanta Santiti’, ‘Bhootnath’ and ‘Rohtasmath’ were translated into English, they would have put the Harry Potter series to shame.

The award was conferred on Dr Rashtrabandhu of Kanpur for his play “Abba ki Khaansi”.

Handing over the award to Dr Rashtrabandhu, noted Hindi writer Kamleshwar stressed the need for rewriting old works in Hindi. A majority of the books under the genre of children’s literature was “childish”. They were good for neither children nor adults.

Mr Kamleshwar said a serious effort was required to produce literature for children and pointed out that the prevailing concept of children’s literature was that it had to be printed in bigger point-size compared to adult literature.

Recalling a personal incident, Mrs Garg said once when she was looking for nursery rhymes for her granddaughter, she could not find even one audiocassette in Hindi while there was no dearth of English rhymes.

Receiving the award consisting of Rs 21,000, Dr Rashtrabandhu suggested the setting up of a university for children so that the challenges faced by the younger generation could be properly studied, researched and addressed.

Editor of children’s magazine ‘Devputra’ Krishan Asthana, said that a centre for children literature studies has already started functioning in Indore.

Mr Shalabh Sharma, president of the Dr Ratanlal Sharma Foundation said that the amount of the award was being raised to Rs 25,000 for the next year. In the subsequent years, it would be Rs 31,000 and Rs 51,000 respectively, he said.

Lucknow, October 8
In a country where a majority of farmers subsist on agriculture, the issue of large scale acquisition of cultivable land to benefit the industrialists demands an extensive social debate, asserted the Jan Morcha today.

Addressing mediapersons at the beginning of the second phase of his “mukti sangram yatra”, Jan Morcha President Raj Babbar charged the state governments with misusing land acquisition laws to acquire lucrative land at throwaway prices to benefit a select few industrialist.

According to him, this is an issue that concern not a pocket or a district but a vast section of population that subsists on agriculture and constitutes the majority in the country.

Strongly demanding a social debate, Mr Babbar said it should not only focus on the immediate problem at hand but also on the long- term fallout of such land acquisitions that were bound to have an adverse impact not only on the life of the future farmer but every Indian.

Welcoming a visible change of attitude as far as special economic zones (SEZ) was concerned, Mr Babbar said finally such a churning was taking place.

He pointed out that union ministers Sharad Pawar and Kamal Nath were now supporting the Jan Morcha’s view that cultivable land must not be acquired for industrial development.

Categorically stating that the Jan Morcha was not opposed to development and industrialisation, Mr Babbar said that they wanted industrialisation but “not at the cost of the farmer”.

Decrying the tendency to indiscriminately acquire land, he said that if this tendency continued unrestrained a situation might arise that India would lose its food security making it extremely vulnerable to external forces.

Declaring that former Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri’s slogan of “Jai Jawan, Jai Kisan”, had become far more relevant in the changed circumstances, Mr Babbar said that if farmers were deprived of their means of livelihood, the plight of ex-servicemen was also no better.

Wondering why industries had not been set up in the vast tracts of barren lands in eastern Uttar Pradesh or in the Purvanchal region, Mr Babbar, who has just completed a successful first phase in the region, stated that if industries had been set up in barren land in this region it would have provided employment to the youth.

Questioning the state government’s motive in not inviting industrialists to
Purvanchal, Mr Babbar declared that the Jan Morcha would soon prepare a blueprint for the development of Purvanchal and present it before the people for approval.

The second phase of his yatra will pass through parts of eastern Uttar Pradesh and Bundelkhand and will culminate in Jalaun district in October 19.

Patna, October 8
In a bid to give a boost to the production of sugar and allied products in Bihar, the Nitish government has cleared proposals for the setting up of 14 new multi-purpose sugar mill complexes involving an estimated investment of Rs 3,624 crore.

Proposals worth Rs 762 crore for the expansion of eight existing sugar units have also been approved by the government in the past 10 months.

Talking to The Tribune, Sugarcane Development Minister Nitish Mishra said the sugar complexes would be set up in Madhubani, East
Champaran, West Champaran Saran, Muzaffarpur, Madhepura, Begusarai, Siwan and Nalanda, among other districts.

All 14 units together would have the capacity of crushing 65,000 tonne of sugarcane per day, besides generating 500 to 600 direct employment opportunities per unit and 5,000 indirect employments. The foundation stone of the first sugar complex would be laid in Madhepura in November.

Mr Mishra said the other major focus would be power generation. The units together would generate 372 MW. The complexes would also consist of distillery plants.

The state government has constituted a five-member committee led by the state Sugar Commissioner.

He stated that while investors had been given the opportunity to choose their own locations for setting up the complexes, the incentive package comprised reimbursement of Central excise duty for five commercial years and exemption from purchase tax and registration fees.

The government would grant 10 per cent subsidy on capital investment or a maximum of Rs 10 crore, whichever was less, after the completion of the first year of commercial production.

Chatra, October 8
The banned CPI (Maoist) ultras beheaded three villagers accusing them of being police informers in this district of Jharkhand today.

The incident took place at the Giddor block of Bariyatu village under Itkhori police station.

The police said the ultras came to Bartwa village at dawn today and picked up the three. After beheading them the CPI (Maoist) ultras left the bodies on the Chatra-Hazaribag road near Bariyatu village.

They also left a note, with the bodies, which accused them of being police informers.

The ultras also warned rest of the villagers not to commit such mistake.

New Delhi, October 8
Ahead of Chinese President Hu Jin Tao’s visit to India this month, CPM leader Sitaram Yechury will be leading a high level delegation of his party to China.

The delegation will include Tripura Chief Minister Manik Sarkar, who will meet the Chinese Communist Party leader during the eight-day visit.

The CPM has a longstanding relationship with the Chinese Communist Party, Mr Yechury maintained that the visit would be a goodwill visit.

The visit assumes significance as the CPM, an outside supporter of the UPA government, would be holding talks ahead of the Chinese President’s visit to India on October 16. Recently, the Left parties had also openly raised objections to the government’s decision not to allow Chinese companies to bid in the telecom sector due to security reasons.

Meanwhile, a 100-member-strong Indian delegation will also be visiting China soon as part of an exchange programme.

The delegation of youths associated with sports academies, Panchayati Raj institutions, Chinese studies, social work, art and culture, journalism and entrepreneurship will be visiting China from October 8 to October 17.

The trip has been organised by the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports to celebrate 2006 as the ‘India-China Friendship’ Year.

The group will visit agricultural enterprises, youth institutions, sports facilities and universities in Beijing, Xian, Guangzhou and Shanghai during its 10-day stay in China.